From Abdelkader to Zuccarello – 17 October 2011

Did you work late last night? Did your significant other make you run errands while the game was on? Did your dog chew off your TV cable wires?

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While You Were Sleeping

St. Louis Blues 2 Anaheim Ducks 4

Off to a slow start this season it took just over two minutes into yesterday’s game for Anahiem’s Bobby Ryan to record his first goal of the season. Ryan put a snap shot past Jaroslav Halak just as a penalty to St. Louis’ Nikita Nikitin for holding expired.

It took until the second period before St. Louis would end up on the scoreboard when Patrik Berglund would beat Jonas Hiller to tie the game. Just over fifteen minutes into the second Blues Chris Porter would be called for roughing while Ducks Matt Deleskey would get a coincidental two minute roughing along with an unsportsmanlike conduct call.

The third period would start with the teams tied at 1-1 with Blues Jason Arnott in the penalty box for a hi-sticking call at 19:19 in the first. Seconds after the penalty expired Francois Beauchemin would score his first of the season to give the Ducks the lead again with a slap shot off of a feed from Bobby Ryan.

Matt D’Agostini would take a tripping call to give the Ducks another power play that would lead to Corey Perry’s first of the season that also saw the first assist to both Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf.

Up 3-1 it would be Bobby Ryan with his second of the game to make it 4-1 before Alexander Steen would cut the lead in half with a snap shot off of a feed from Jason Arnott.

The defense played a big role Sunday as Beauchemin had a goal and an assist and Luca Sbisa had two helpers. The Ducks also aren’t letting Hiller face a barrage of shots every night, something the goalie appreciates.

In case you guys haven’t heard, Blake cut his arm by the skate of Brent Burns in the Ducks home opener on Friday. He will be out for about 3 months since he suffered tendon damage in that incident.

Checking in with a look at the Washington Capitals Top Six: Week 1 see which players made the cut versus being in the doghouse after the first week of the season.

Sitting at the bottom of the Central Division the Columbus Blue Jackets have collected one point in their first five games of the season and are a negative seven when it comes to goals scored versus goals scored against. It can be hard to be a hockey fan in a city that even after a restructure are still struggling. Matt Wagner over at The Cannon too a quick Jackets Fandom Q&A with ten random fans from Twitter about their thoughts on the Blue Jackets and their season thus far.

The crews currently working on Maple Leaf Gardens are busy converting the building from an arena to a Loblaws supermarket and an athletic centre for Toronto’s Ryerson University. This hasn’t sat well with many hockey fans and historians, as the arena that saw the Maple Leafs win 11 Stanley Cups has to be reconstructed, remodelled and refurbished, according to CBC.

In case you missed it over the weekend things got a little hairy at the Plymouth Whalers (OHL) 4th Annual Pink Out game for Breast Cancer Awareness. The entire “Fighting Cancer” concept was taken literally with four fights in the 5-4 overtime loss to the Sarnia Sting. To help raise money you can bid on the Whalers jerseys from the Pink Out game. Auctions running now until October 24-27 (each jersey has a different end time and date make sure you keep track of your jersey).

In case you missed it Risto Pakarien aka Puckarinen is now has his own blog (Puckarinen Hit’s a Post) over at Kukla’s Korner. Check out his piece Legion of Gloom.

The Swedish Elitserien will now send their seven pro referees on a tour to visit all 12 clubs, to educate the players on proper checking. The league is putting together an educational video which the refs will also show to the players, according to Swedish Aftonbladet.

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